Do you believe in God?

[VirtualPA]

I am interested to know what the majority of people belive.

I personally believe in a Christian God, Heaven and hell etc.

I raised a strict an athiest

snorbs I'm going to remember that!

Oh I'll happily agree that Islam is a crock of shit too, as is Hinduism, Judaism, Shinto, Buddhism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Vaudun, Wicca and all the rest that I have left out for reasons of space or having forgotten what they are called. They're all bullshit.

THe reason Christianity gets most of the derision and contempt is that a) most of MN (probably, no-one's done a headcount) were educated in the UK where the state schools all peddle a fair bit of this particular brand of crap and therefore most of us are relatively knowledgable about it and b) it's ostly Christians who make utter fucking pests of themselves insisting that other people take their silly delusions seriously. I've yet to see any Hindu or Sikh MNers start threads insisting everyone else pay attention to their particular feast days or customs and admit that their deities might be real.

Islam is very clear in it's assertion that it is the latest message of the same deity that sent down Judaism and Christianity. Apparently, Christianity went astray with worship of Christ and various other figures, and that is why Islam forbids any worship or even depiction (which could be used for worship) of Mohammad.

So yes, it is indeed the same religion, with slight modifications as the previous one steered off course.

its assertion, obviously. Stupid auto-correct.

Raised Roman Catholic. Still Roman Catholic. Struggling with being a Roman Catholic - not a crisis of faith, but of authority I suppose. Flirting with the Anglican Church, but still feeling the twitch upon the thread.

No I don't

another no here.

went to sunday school every week till the age of 9 when my mother died. even at that young age remember thinking what kind of god is that who has left me without a mother. so never went back to church.

and all this crap about "god doesnt give you more grief than you can cope with" and "god only takes the good ones" and " this is in god's plan for your life".

bullshit is what i think about that.

Yes.

I was raised as an Atheist and have only started going to church within the last year.

Have only read OP & assume this is a yes or no thread.

So no.

(was raised C of E)

Has anyone ever asked the question "why worship god even if he did exist?". I've noticed that believing that something more powerful than us exists seems to lead automatically to worshipping it. Isn't that just equating 'might' with 'right'?

of course they have. Religions have answers for every possible question. You might not like the answers, but you can be totally confident that your questions have been asked befor.

"it seems the whole thing was invented to keep the working class fearful and in their place"

(posted by PrettyFeckinVacant Mon 21-Jun-10 20:58:14 )

not even for the "working class" originally - it was for the peasants (although to be fair the nobs seemed to subscribe fairly whole-heartedly too, 100s of years ago).

But it goes back way further than that, to a dark time when they knew nothing, & it must have been hugely comforting for them to think that there was someone out there watching over them...

The Source by James Michener is enlightening

Someguy, I'm sure they have really. I was just noticing that ordinarily people don't seem to consider the third option. There seems to be an unspoken assumption that if you believed he was real you'd follow him.

most people don't really consider fundamental questions. And why should they? It doesn't really get you anywhere. If you're happy and content with yourself, that's as much as you can ask for out of life, whether or not God exists, or whether or not he is worthy of worship may be missing the point.

Of course if you want to do theology, philosopy, etc., there's plenty out there.

Nope
Mum rampant Catholic now extreme evangelical, dad lapsed Hindu.
I think we believe what makes the most sense to us according to our personality/life experience.
No one knows what happens after death: worms, virgins, paradise, poked by demons? In the absence of any conclusive proof we are all just picking the theory which makes the most sense to us.

I am passionately atheist but would no more criticise some one else's faith than I would their parenting choices ...

SGB - to brand all of those things a "crock of shit" is narrow minded and quite arrogant in my view.

Whilst I fundamentally disagree with Christian teachings and the concepts of God/Heaven/Hell as a whole - I would never brand them a crock of shit. It's about respect.

Just my two-penneth.

Thanks PadmeHum. I appreciate your open-mindedness and tolerance towards those of us who have different views to you own There are ways of debating things without resorting to derision and discourtesy. I hope that we Christians can return the favour and be tolerant of others also.

your

Diplodoris, glad to be of service .

I recently attended a Buddhist ceremony (Buddha's Birthday). It was a wonderful, peaceful ceremony during which representatives of the Christian; Anglican and Hindu faith also gave readings.

I was interested that without exception the message was of tolerance.

Reminds me of a passage from the Desiderata:

Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him to be, and whatever your labours and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all it's sham drudgery and broken dreams; it is still a beautiful world.

Sorry I meant Christian/Anglican; Islamic and Hindu ...

No

And Christianity is the default faith in this country. and the only one that seeks to have it's beliefs considered in all areas of life - my desire for my child to attend a secular school is over ridden by Christian's desire for schools to be basically Christian establishments, consideration has to be given to Christian views when laws about issues like abortion and euthanasia are debated, serious consideration has to be given to Creationism in the education system......I could go on.

I think of it as a bit like smoking. Before the smoking ban, it seemed somehow that the rights of smokers to smoke outweighed the non smokers right to breathe fresh air. So, my right to post Enlightment rationality is outweighed by other's right to superstition and irrationality.

me personally no and had parents that were quite open to me dabbling and looking into as many relgions as i like .

Trying to do same for my dc and make sure that they respect other peoples relgion what ever form that may take